Tracking

This is the phase of recording where an artist or band actually records the tracks for the song. We may record the entire band playing at once to get a good "live" feel, or record the song in phases, with each musician performing as many takes as needed to perfect the part.

For instance, a band may play the instrumental portion of the song, then the vocalist will "overdub" vocals. This gives the vocalist as many takes as necessary to get the vocals right.

It is crucial to have a skilled engineer during this phase, as a musician or vocalist may wish to go back and change only one phrase of a take, or perhaps duplicate a single phrase over the length of the song.

Mixing

The mixing phase sees all the recorded tracks brought together with equalization, compression, and other effects to produce a single stereo track. All instruments and vocals will need to be treated individually to create the sound desired. Again, at this stage, it takes a skilled engineer to work efficiently with the artist and producer to bring out the desired sound.

Mastering is the final phase in the production of the finished project. This is where the tracks are "polished" to yield the finished, release-ready sound of a commercial track. This phase involves "normalizing" the levels of completed tracks to achieve uniform loudness, controlling peaks in the mixed material, final tweaking in the frequency domain, multiband compression, and more.

Mastering is exceptionally important for commercial-grade music because it ensures the most full, rich sound possible from the recording. This is also the stage where some tracks may be cross-faded with others, or subdivided to create separate tracks on a CD.